


The Coven

by laniew1



Category: Jonas Brothers, The Academy Is...
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-05
Updated: 2010-03-05
Packaged: 2018-04-07 15:29:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4268550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laniew1/pseuds/laniew1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was a war about 20 years before Kevin was even a thought in his parents’ heads. They used to call them Wizards and Witches and there used to be special schools for them and they were known but not known and most importantly, <i>they weren’t hunted</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Coven

**The Coven**

 

 

“Your husband has a girlfriend,” Zac says. He flops down on the grass next to Kevin, tosses the apple in his hand up in the air, catches it. Then takes a huge bite out of it, Kevin doesn’t look over, he knows what he’ll see, Zac chewing and grinning, the juice from the apple running down his chin.

“He’s not my husband,” Kevin says. He’s counting the clouds, he’s bored and tired and he’s not been sleeping well at night. He doesn’t know why, or he knows why but he doesn’t want to _admit_ that he knows why.

“Husband to be, whatever,” Zac waves a hand.

Kevin twists the ring on his finger, it had once been too big and Kevin had been able to wear it on a chain around his neck. It’s only been the last year when he’s actually grown into the ring, his mother forcing him to put it on his finger, wear it where it’s supposed to be worn.

“He has a girlfriend,” Zac says, like he thinks that Kevin might not have heard him.

“I know,” Kevin says. “I can see her just like you can.”

Mike Carden is across the lawn of the school, Amanda is in his lap, if either one of them has classes they’ll end up being skipped. Kevin’s never sure why either one of them is enrolled if they’re not going to participate.

“You’re sparking,” Zac says idly. He’s watching Mike and Amanda just like Kevin is, Bill Beckett is leaning over them to talk to Travis.

Kevin takes a deep breath, closes his eyes.

“Our parents were so completely stupid,” Kevin mutters.

 

******************************************************************************

 

Kevin owns the house that he lives in, when she died his grandmother had left everything to him, her house, all her worldly possessions. Kevin had never known why until he walked into the house and it had sung to him.

_Literally_ sang, not figuratively.

He’s like his grandmother, like his grandfather (who died _way_ before he was even born), carrying on a bloodline that from what his research can tell him is almost two hundred years old.

It skipped a generation, the magic and not even all those in a generation will get it. Neither Joe or Nick show any of the signs that Kevin had, Frankie does but he’s much better at subterfuge then Kevin was at his age. Kevin’s sometimes not even completely sure if Frankie has magic or not.

 

******************************************************************************

 

“What the hell is Ross wearing?” Zac asks.

Kevin looks over and bites his lip to keep from laughing. Ryan Ross has friends with pointy elbows and sneering expressions and Kevin doesn’t want bruises.

It’s a good thing that Ryan has the friends that he has, because he’s wearing pin striped pants and a paisley printed shirt and a blazer that looks like something his grandfather would have worn (if Kevin had ever had the opportunity to meet him) and a hat.

The thing is, as crazy as it looks, Ryan can pull it off; mostly because he was labeled as ‘eccentric’ the first day of classes. If Kevin tried to wear that he’d get shoved into a locker or a trashcan.

“I like his hat,” Kevin says, for lack of anything more suitable to say.

His mother always said if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all but sometimes Kevin just can't help himself and words come out.

 

******************************************************************************

 

There are others like him, so it’s not like he’s completely alone.

At least there’s _one_ other like him, they found each other by accident. Kevin had been doing his inaugural grocery shopping for his house, he needed every condiment known to man and was trying to decide between name brand catsup or store brand when he got bumped into from behind.

He’d sparked because he didn’t have it completely under control anymore; the house seemed to bring out the worst in him. It wanted him to play with his powers (still does but Kevin’s better at ignoring the whims of inanimate objects) and Kevin wouldn’t have had a problem with that but he also didn’t want to burn the house down, he’s certainly not moving back in with his parents if he does.

He’d turned and the first thing he’d noticed was the sparks on the other person’s fingers before he noticed who exactly it was.

“Oh,” he’d probably looked silly, but Ryan Ross’ eyes had looked like they were going to pop out of his head so he thought they might have been even.

 

******************************************************************************

 

Ryan shows up when they’re done for the day, they pretend not to know each other at school because while magic users aren’t hunted down and killed anymore, that’s more because the government agencies that handled that sort of thing think that they’re all dead then because they’ve given up looking for them.

If they were to start interacting at school it would raise red flags because they run in different groups with different friends and different schedules. They have no real reason to ever interact.

Ryan always parks four streets away and cuts through backyards, he has a key to the backdoor and he’s sitting at the kitchen table with crackers and cheese when Kevin walks through the front door.

The book he has open in front of him is identical to the one that Kevin has, his was handed down from his grandfather, Kevin’s was from his grandmother, he has no clue what happened to his grandfathers’ but he’s pretty sure that it was destroyed during the war.

Kevin pointedly doesn’t say anything about the rings of bruises circling Ryan’s wrists; they’ve had the fight a couple of times. Kevin thinks that Ryan should move into the house, Ryan thinks that if they do that they might as well just paint a bull’s-eye on the side of the house and turn themselves in.

“I like having friends, I kind of don’t want to lose them,” he always says. Kevin doesn’t think that Smith or Walker are going anywhere.

“How sure are you that Mike Carden doesn’t know anything?” Ryan asks, he flips a page and looks up at Kevin, there’s dark circles under his eyes which means that Ryan isn’t sleeping. Kevin doesn’t ask if it’s because he’s dreaming prophetic dreams that scream their deaths because he knows it probably is.

“As far as I know he just thinks that our grandparents were into the old ways, he doesn’t know anything about them actually being able to use magic,” Kevin says. He doesn’t know for sure, it’s not like he talks to him after all. Mike has never expressed any interest in getting to know him, it makes him kind of sad sometimes.

“Why?”

“I thought,” Ryan shakes his head. “I thought I saw him do something that he shouldn’t have been able to do, but… it was probably just my eyes playing tricks on me.”

“Or wishful thinking, we’ll find someone else eventually,” Kevin says. He knows this; he can feel it deep in his gut. There’s more of them out there, somewhere.

They’re just hiding, and he and Ryan just need to find them.

 

******************************************************************************

 

There was a war about 20 years before Kevin was even a thought in his parents’ heads. They used to call them Wizards and Witches and there used to be special schools for them and they were known but not known and most importantly, _they weren’t hunted_.

Then war came and it was magic users against magic users and a lot of people died, then it spilled out into the non-magic world and it was the non-magic users against the magic users and a _lot more_ people died. The history books are vague (and JK Rowling got the fact that there were schools and wands and magic users fighting magic users right, everything else was completely wrong), those that even talk about it, most of them have been edited to not even mention it, Kevin only really gets any sort of idea of what actually happened from the book his grandmother left for him and the one that Ryan’s grandfather left for him.

Ryan’s grandfather was more involved, actually fighting, Kevin’s grandmother had been in hiding because she’d had a newborn child, his grandfather had died during the war before they’d started taking names and arresting people.

Ryan’s last name isn’t really Ross, they’re not sure what it actually is because it’s been scratched out of the front of the book; his grandfather changed it when he went into hiding after the war was done and the governments were rounding up the magic users and executing them.

 

******************************************************************************

 

Mike stops him in the hallway between classes, Kevin had made the decision to do college because, well, what else was he going to do with his time?

He’d be really bored if he sat in the house all day, plus if he did that the house might actually get its way.

“Kid,” Mike stops and looks at him. “I’d stay away from Ross.”

Kevin blinks at him, because, what. “What?”

“Stay away from Ross, he’s bad news.”

“I’m not friends with Ross,” Kevin says. Mike stares at him, Kevin fights to keep himself from fidgeting. Its one of his tells, his brothers and Zac and Ryan have all told him that.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Mike says, he reaches out and squeezes his shoulder. Then walks away.

“What?”

“Are you talking to yourself man?” Zac appears in front of him.

“Um, no?”

 

******************************************************************************

 

“He warned you away from me?” Ryan looks completely bewildered. He’s an awful liar so he’s just as confused as Kevin is.

And maybe a little scared that Kevin will actually do what Mike says.

“I don’t, it was all very confusing,” Kevin says.

Ryan looks down at his hands, at his fingers linked together between his legs. There are fresh bruises on his wrists, they could heal them, there’s a spell for it, if only it wouldn’t draw unwanted attention to them and get them killed.

“Are you, I mean maybe it would be easier for you if we didn’t…”

“Ryan, you’re my friend,” Kevin says. He has Zac and he has Ryan, its not like he has so many friends that he can just give one up.

“But he’s going to be your husband, eventually. I don’t want to cause trouble,” Ryan says.

“He’ll, it’s never going to be anything; I think he and Amanda were… _you know_ … in the stairwell under the bleachers,” Kevin flushes.

 

******************************************************************************

 

Back when their grandparents had been alive arranged marriages were nothing new. They were used to bind families that were already closer then any blood relation would be, they were used to solve disputes and to further land holdings.

It was all middle ages type stuff.

Ryan’s bound to someone that he’s never met, the guy lives in a completely different city and they’ve never once interacted, Ryan’s never been sure how exactly the contract was arranged though he _does_ know that the other guy is a magic user.

Kevin wishes that he was that lucky.

Because he’s pretty sure that Mike’s family counts no magic users under their family tree. When it had been explained to him, as a child (when he tried to date and his father almost had a heart attack thinking about the cost of breaking the contract) he’d been told that Mike’s family had taken his grandmother and his dad in.

They’d offered them shelter and food and asked for nothing in return.

They’d given them Kevin anyway.

 

******************************************************************************

 

Ryan’s not at a school. Kevin tries not to look like he’s fidgety and/or scared, he hides in the bathroom during his free time and calls Ryan’s cell repeatedly.

Over and over it goes to voice mail.

He’s got a bad, horrible gnawing feeling of _doom_ in the pit of his stomach.

When he comes out of the bathroom he sees Mike and William Beckett at the end of the hallway, heads bent close together. They both look up and stare at him.

Kevin bites his lip, ducks his head and goes in the opposite direction.

It’s the long way, but he doesn’t care.

 

******************************************************************************

 

He drives past Ryan’s house and there are no signs of life, no car in the driveway, not Ryan’s or his fathers’.

There are three papers outside the front door.

If Ryan or his dad had been taken in there would have been an announcement, something.

Nothing being said means that they might just have left town.

He goes home and even as he slots his key into the lock he knows someone is in the house.

_More_ then one someone. He feels nothing that tells him that he should _run, hide, leave, flee_. But it’s also not a familiar presence like Ryan’s.

He trusts his gut most times, so he pushes the door open, makes sure that it closes behind him and drops his bag on the floor.

They’re upstairs, in the attic and he takes the steps two at a time, pushing the door open.

There’s a circle in the middle of the floor that he and Ryan had drawn, they’re not a full coven, there’s only been the two of them; but there’s a couple of things that they can do that only need two magic users.

He doesn’t expect to see Bill Beckett sitting in the middle of the circle when he pushes the door open; doesn’t expect to see Mike standing at the window, arms crossed over his chest.

Kevin gapes, because of all the people he’d _expected_ to see, these two hadn’t even made the short list.

 

******************************************************************************

 

“They took Ross’ father,” Bill says, he and Mike look at Kevin expectantly.

“What?” he asks, he rubs at his neck and doesn’t make direct eye contact.

“Why would they take Ross’ father young Mr. Jonas?”

“Um, I don’t know?” Kevin says. They don’t believe him, _he_ wouldn’t believe him and he’s the one actually saying the words.

They both stare at him, Bill is still sitting in the center of the circle. Kevin fidgets.

“This is stupid,” Mike mutters.

“Mike,” Bill says, there’s a tone of disapproval in his voice.

Mike ignores him, holds his hands out in front of him and…

… and sparks arc off his fingertips.

 

******************************************************************************

 

They would have had wands, if it had been a lot of years earlier and every wand maker hadn’t been amongst the first to be killed.

Instead they make do; they both have taken to wearing gloves if they’re feeling like they might be extra sparky that day.

The book says that eventually they’ll be able to control the sparks, the visible signs of their magic flaring and growing within them.

In his book Kevin’s grandmother writes that she was almost 30 when she managed to get it under control; they’re hoping to manage it earlier because neither one of them wants to die.

 

******************************************************************************

 

“Ryan’s like me,” Kevin says. “Like us,” he amends.

He’s sitting on his couch, Bill is sitting next to him, hand on his back patting consolingly, glaring at Mike with a disapproving expression.

Mike is pacing.

“You’re sure?” Mike says, he drags a hand through his hair.

“Yes,” Kevin says. There are not many things he’s sure of.

Ryan is one of them; the fact that if anyone finds out about them they’re going to be killed is the other.

 

******************************************************************************

 

There’s an announcement on the news that a magic user has been captured, there’s no name, no picture. Kevin wrings his hands together and tries not to think about public executions and whether he’s strong enough to help get Ryan out of wherever they’re keeping him.

“You’re not thinking about doing anything stupid, are you?” Zac asks.

“No, of course not,” Kevin says, he’s lying and Zac knows it. But Zac lets it go, Bill and Mike don’t.

“They don’t have Ross,” Mike says. “They have his dad; they’re trying to draw him out by using his dad as bait.”

“Ryan’s dad isn’t a magic user,” Kevin says. “And where’s Ryan if they don’t have him?”

“In hiding probably,” Bill says sensibly.

Kevin hmmps, Ryan normally hides out at his house, why should this time be any different.

“Because he doesn’t want to draw their attention to you most likely,” Mike says.

“Are you _reading my mind_?” Kevin asks with wide eyes, because he hadn’t even said anything. Mike’s cheeks stain red.

“It’s fairly new, he doesn’t have that much control over it yet,” Bill says, he’s leaning back on the couch staring at the painting over the fireplace.

“You don’t like Amanda, at all,” Mike smirks. Kevin crosses his arms over his chest and tries a glare. Mike’s smirk deepens and he takes two steps forward and stops right in front of Kevin.

Kevin narrows his eyes at him.

“You tell Efron to stop picturing you naked, I’ll think about cutting Amanda loose before you set her on fire with runaway sparks.”

“Zac’s in love with Lucas,” Kevin says.

“That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t picture you naked, it’s really annoying and I know a spell or two that’ll get those thoughts right out of his head.”

“You don’t hurt Zac, he’s one of my best friends and…”

“All right boys, _enough_ ,” Bill snaps. “Kevin, Mike is a possessive bastard, which you will undoubtedly find out and he’s taken exception to the fact that you chose the prettiest boy in school to be your best friend; Mike, Kevin is annoyed because you have a contract and you haven’t expressed any interest in even _trying_ to be his friend,” Bill looks between them, exasperation etched into every line of his face.

“If that’s it I think we should be more concerned with how we’re going to find Ryan Ross, then whether or not Mike is going to break every bone in Zac’s hand if he touches you again, or Kevin is going to find a spell to make Amanda disappear before Mike can.”

Mike scowls at Bill and Bill smiles winningly at him, though it has a bit of an edge.

“Now why don’t you tell young Mr. Jonas _why_ exactly you’ve taken up with Amanda, before he _does_ actually find a spell to take care of that problem.”

“I would never…” Kevin starts.

“Her father runs the organization that’s responsible for hunting and containing us,” Mike says.

“Oh.”

“It’s how we know that they don’t have Ryan,” Bill says. “So we need to find him before they do, or before they realize that Mike’s not exactly someone they should be talking in front of or around.”

 

******************************************************************************

 

They all go to school just like its any normal day, Kevin wraps his hand around the strap of his bag and doesn’t make eye contact with anyone.

Walker and Smith have their heads bent together whenever he sees them and they both look pale and worried, they’ve added a third to their group. Brendon Urie is in Kevin’s Music Appreciation class, his hand is intertwined with Smith’s, and he reaches out to squeeze Walker’s arm periodically.

Mike and Bill walk past him twice, Mike normally has his arm slung over Amanda’s shoulders and they don’t look at him; Kevin tries not to glare, tries not to corner Amanda after Accounting 101 and _demand_ she tell him where Ryan is.

It wouldn’t get him anywhere but maybe into a cell with a death sentence hanging over his head.

 

******************************************************************************

 

There’s one message on his phone when he turns it on after class, the number is not familiar but the sound of the breathing on the other end is.

“Ryan,” he says.

 

******************************************************************************

 

Bill knows a guy who knows a guy who’s apparently sleeping with _another_ guy who does something to Kevin’s cell phone and is able to somehow pinpoint where the call originated from.

“It’s not a cell,” the guy says, he’s leering at Bill and Bill’s got his hips cocked and is looking at him with a coy expression on his face.

Kevin’d thought Bill was with Travis, but he could have been wrong.

“Why don’t you give us a direction or something a bit more _useful_ , Gabe,” Mike says. He’s rolling his eyes; Kevin doesn’t want to know what he’s picking up from them.

“I can do one better,” Gabe slides a hand into one of his pockets and pulls out a piece of paper. “Street address, the number is registered to a house.”

 

******************************************************************************

 

The house is falling apart, Kevin can’t think of why Ryan thought he’d be better off hiding here then coming to Kevin’s.

“He didn’t want to put you in danger,” Mike says.

“ _Stop. Doing. That_ ,” Kevin states.

It’s getting kind of annoying, and he’s running out of songs to sing in his head to keep Mike from reading his thoughts.

Bill is already pushing the front door open, hands brushing over a symbol carved into the door frame.

“This was part of the underground,” he says softly.

Kevin doesn’t even _want_ to know how Ryan would know that.

 

******************************************************************************

 

There was a network of underground tunnels through almost all of the major cities; it was how the witches and wizards that had escaped detection managed to remain under the governments’ radar.

And how those that escaped containment managed to get out.

Canada is more magic friendly then the US; they actually have two visible magic users sitting in high profile positions. Most magic users whose names went on record in the US escaped to Canada shortly after the war. Kevin doesn’t know why some chose to stay.

 

******************************************************************************

 

Ryan’s not on the first floor or the second, the only place left for him to be hiding is the basement and Kevin’s hoping that he hadn’t made the phone call and then run.

The basement is empty.

Kevin sits on an empty crate and tries not to feel the crushing weight of hopelessness weighing down his shoulders.

“I thought you said this place was part of the underground,” Mike says.

“It is, that’s what the symbols on the door meant,” Bill says, he’s walking the edges of the room and he stops in front of a large, old looking bookcase. He flicks his fingers and mumbles something under his breath and bookcase shifts out of the way.

There’s a tunnel there, hidden behind the bookcase.

Kevin sparks, willingly and heads into the tunnel, Mike and Bill right behind him.

 

******************************************************************************

 

There are multiple tunnels, connecting and intersecting. Some have been collapsed, some have been boarded off.

Kevin doesn’t think that government was responsible for that; if the government had known where they were they would have collapsed the entire thing and destroyed the houses that were linked together by it.

It’s three wrong turns and two dead ends before they see light at the edge of one of the tunnels.

Kevin goes first and Ryan’s made barriers, did something to protect the room because outside the entrance to a little room dug into one of the walls he couldn’t feel him at all, the minute he walks through the entranceway he can feel Ryan’s magic battering at him.

He can see him, huddled in a corner, half hidden by a stack of drums and crates. He has his arms wrapped around his legs, head lying against his knees.

“Ryan,” Kevin breathes, Mike and Bill crowd in behind him, Mike’s hand resting low on his back before Kevin darts forward.

Ryan’s head pops up from the sound of all of them in the room with him and his eyes are wide and wild and he is completely terrified.

“It’s okay,” Kevin says, he holds his hands out in front of him. His heart is breaking a little because Ryan’s got blood on his face and his hands, he’s got a black eye and a split lip and he looks like he hasn’t slept in the four days since he’d gone missing.

“It’s okay,” Kevin says again.

Ryan makes a sound like a whine and pushes himself to his feet; he makes it three steps before he collapses. Kevin rushes forward, arms wrapping around him before he completely falls. He winces when his knees hit the ground, Bill is right beside him after a moment and Mike is doing something to make it lighter in the tunnel.

“You’re safe, we’ve got you now,” Bill is murmuring.

“They’ve got my dad,” Ryan says, his voice is shaking, it breaks on the last word and he takes a deep breath that turns into a sob.

“He,” Ryan raises an arm and wipes at his eyes with it, Kevin can’t seem to let go of his hand and he feels Mike come up behind him, kneeling and putting a hand on his shoulder. “He got a warning, someone called him to warn him that there’d been a complaint made and he,” Ryan’s lips are quivering and he closes his eyes. “There wasn’t any time, they showed up and my dad was fighting them and… I don’t even know how I got away. I don’t know what my dad _did_.”

“Ryan,” Kevin says.

“They don’t know positively if you’re actually a magic user,” Bill says. “There was just a complaint, there’s a spell we can do that can hide your magic long enough that they can test you and release you with a non-magic certification. You can tell them that you were scared, that you didn’t know what was going on…”

Ryan seems to notice then that Kevin didn’t come alone; every muscle in his body stiffens, like he’s going to run.

“It’s okay,” Kevin says. “They’re like us.”

Ryan looks at him with disbelief, Kevin can understand completely. For all their talk about finding more magic users, finding enough to form a small coven and be able to do something other then hide; he doesn’t think that either one of them expected to really find anyone.

Mike rolls his eyes and Kevin waits for him to reach over his shoulder and spark like he did when he and Bill first came to the house.

Instead it’s Bill that holds out one hand, snaps his fingers, mutters something under his breath and a sparkly butterfly floats from his fingertips and flies close to Ryan’s face.

Ryan’s eyes are wide and staring; he holds up the hand that Kevin isn’t gripping and the butterfly lands on his fingertips and disappears.

 

******************************************************************************

 

The spell takes four magic users, they’re lucky Kevin guesses, because some of them take a full coven of eight and none of them think that they’ll ever get to that point. Not before Ryan gets tracked.

They do the spell and Ryan’s magic is trapped inside him, he has no outlet and is fidgety and mean-tempered for the two hours it takes for them to test it and make sure they’re not going to be handing him over to people who will be able to see through the spell and decide to kill him.

When they’re sure, when Ryan can’t manage a spark of accidental magic even when Mike scares him so bad that Ryan shakes for almost 20 minutes, Ryan leaves.

He hugs Kevin tightly and then shoves him in Mike’s direction and runs out the door.

 

******************************************************************************

 

Mike sits beside him on the couch, he’s got an arm slung over his shoulder and Kevin is tapping his fingers against his thighs.

Bill is pacing.

It’s been almost a day and they’ve not heard anything; not that a magic user has been captured not that a non-magic user was released.

“What are you going to do about Amanda?” Kevin asks.

Mike and Bill have been with him for almost the entirety of the two days since they found Ryan then sent him off to be poked and prodded and test by government officials.

Mike’s cell phone sits on the arm of the couch and has been strangely silent.

“I got what I needed, it’s not an issue anymore,” Mike says.

“You weren’t even a little bit interested in staying with her?” Kevin asks.

Mike laughs a little. “Kid if you knew the stuff that I saw in her head. Besides I’ve had this contract thing since I was five, breaking it would have been a bit of a hassle.”

“It’s just a contract,” Kevin says.

“The first stage of a contract is a binding of magical energies,” Bills says absently.

“You thought I wasn’t a magic user, I know that, but the thing is, if I _hadn’t_ been a magic user there wouldn’t have _been_ a contract. If our magic wasn’t compatible the first stage would never have worked.”

“I,” Kevin frowns. “I didn’t know that.” His book hadn’t talked about binding or contracts or compatible magic. His grandmother had left a bit of stuff out.

“Ryan is bound, right?” Bill asks, Kevin nods slowly. “There’s a bit of magic in him that isn’t his, just like there’s a bit of magic in you that isn’t yours, that’s Mike’s.”

“He doesn’t know who it is, we know he doesn’t live here,” Kevin says.

Ryan pushes open the front door slowly; Kevin comes to his feet, Mike right beside him. His arm goes back over Kevin’s shoulder and Kevin wonders if they’re going to be able to go back to pretending they don’t know each other.

“No,” Mike whispers in his ear.

Bill reaches out for Ryan and Ryan grasps at his hand.

“We’re good,” Ryan says. Bill pulls him into a hug, winds his arms around Ryan and it takes a moment but Ryan responds, hugging him back.

“My dad’s in the hospital, they,” Ryan rubs his face in Bill’s shoulder, Kevin thinks he might be crying but when he lifts his head Ryan’s eyes are red but still dry.

“They don’t think he’s going to make it, they hurt him, a lot, trying to find out where I was hiding. I had to sign papers promising I wouldn’t sue them before they’d let me leave after the tests.”

“Well you’re going to stay here,” Kevin says, it’s really a no-brainer, and kind of about darned time.

“Bull’s-eye,” Ryan mutters but he doesn’t say no.

“I don’t care.”

And he really doesn’t, except for the prospect of death, it’ll be nice to have someone else around if only to share the responsibilities of grocery shopping with.

He always forgets something and it’s normally something like toilet paper that he’s going to desperately need.

 

******************************************************************************

 

Ryan’s dad dies on a Tuesday. Whatever had happened to him in the week that he’d been held he’d not been able to recover from.

He’s barely lucid towards the end, sometimes he mistakes Ryan for his grandfather (Kevin’s seen pictures, Ryan’s the spitting image of his grandfather at his age).

Ryan sits by his bed and Kevin and Spencer sit with him, he tries to send them away multiple times but Kevin’s not going anywhere and Spencer looks at him with barely concealed suspicion so he doesn’t go anywhere either.

The others flit in and out, Mike has gone from in no way acknowledging that Kevin is even breathing to pulling him into loose hugs and surprising him with chaste kisses.

It’s Ryan and Kevin and Spencer in the room when Ryan’s dad takes his last breath.

He looks at Ryan, squeezes his hand and then closes his eyes and is gone. Kevin’s almost glad it was quick; even if he doesn’t really like the man because of bruises on Ryan’s wrists and arms, he’d still been Ryan’s dad.

Ryan doesn’t move, doesn’t say anything, Kevin can’t even tell if he’s breathing.

He just stares at his fathers’ body.

 

******************************************************************************

 

There’s a light rain the day of the funeral, Kevin has to go back into the house to grab an umbrella; the funeral itself is a somber, quiet affair.

George Ross didn’t have many friends; his boss shows up, there are some people that he worked with that show as well. Mostly it’s Ryan and Kevin and their minute number of friends.

Ryan has grips on both his and Spencer’s hands, doesn’t let go except to rub at his eyes periodically; they stand with him while he greets those that arrive to say goodbye, to pay their last respects. Kevin thinks that if Ryan had to stand there alone he’d probably just leave.

Bill and Mike arrive together, Gabe tagging along behind them.

Mike hugs Kevin, then ruffles Ryan’s hair, he nods at Spencer and steps back, Bill and Gabe moving forward to take his place.

Bill wraps long arms around Ryan and Ryan releases their hands long enough to hug him back. Kevin flexes his fingers to get back circulation, Ryan has a strong grip, he glances to the right and can see Spencer doing the same.

He can’t hear what Bill is whispering, he’ll ask Ryan later and Ryan will tell him that Bill was assuring him that things would be okay. He whispers in Ryan’s ear for way longer then it would take to say that, there was other things said but Ryan doesn’t ever tell him what they were.

 

******************************************************************************

 

Ryan moves in with him, closing up his dads house and moving his belongings completely in.

He takes the bedroom three doors down from Kevin’s (Bill has chosen one right next to it and Mike says he’s not choosing one, when he moves in he’ll be sleeping in Kevin’s room and there’s no sense in moving twice).

They carpool back and forth to school, Ryan has a part-time job at a bookstore and Kevin thinks that he spends almost all his earnings on books. Only about half of them Kevin would even think about reading.

They’re all pretty obscure titles, some of them by authors that Kevin hasn’t even heard of.

They come home from classes and normally it’s just the two of them, Bill has class until 4 and Mike works until 7 at a music store.

They’ll eat dinner when Mike comes home and then they’ll go up to the attic, close all the blinds and flip through their books, practicing spells and letting their magic flow.

There are others out there like them, hiding, waiting.

Someday they’ll be a full coven, Kevin is sure of that if he’s not sure of anything else.

 

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End file.
